Who says you can't have fun in Dijon?

For those of you who grew up in Cincinnati, OH, I would be willing to bet that more than once during your adolescence you complained that "there's nothing to do around here." And if you're the parent who raised your children in Cincinnati, OH, you probably remember those complaints even more vividly. I get the sense that Dijonnais teenagers probably express the same sentiment about Dijon. And not entirely without reason. Compared to Paris, there's not a whole lot going on. But just as I have discovered there are actually lots of things to do in Cincinnati, so have I discovered there are actually lots of things to do in Dijon. Here's a quick summary of the last few days:

• Went to Beaune with Mary-Kate (a picture of Les Hospices, the hospital which was built in the early 1400s with a toit bourgignonne)
  
• Baked an apple pie for my host family - it was a complete success!
• Did lots of final Christmas-present shopping
• Went for a run with Peter
  
• Saw the film "Le Concert"
• Went to a soirée at my friend Jérôme's house (Jérôme is a member of Les Discjonctes)
• Had lunch with Dr. Barbour, Peter, Mary-Kate, Kara, and Carleigh at Café de la Comedie
  
• Went to the Musee de la Vie Bourgignonne with Peter and Mary-Kate
• Visited my apartment-mate Sarah who is currently in the hospital
• Attended a cooking class orangized by CIEF at Atelier des Chefs
• Took Hendrix for a walk around Dijon
• Worked as a volunteer at a "Restaurant du Coeur" with Kara
• Went to my final Ultimate practice with Les Discjonctes (*sniff, sniff*) and then Flunch for dinner
  

Since I am rapidly approaching the time when I will see all or most of you again, I'm not going to go into too much detail. In a very short time we'll be face-to-face again and you can ask questions about my life in Dijon. But I do want to tell you about the Restos du Coeur, because it was a pretty neat experience. I have volunteered at soup kitchens numerous times over the last 10 years or so, and regularly attended Saturday Lunch while at Wake Forest (for those of you who don't know, Saturday Lunch occurs every weekend in downtown W-S, a meal served by Wake students to anyone in need). This was Kara's 4th time volunteering there, because she did her exposé on homelessness in France and she interviewed one of the directors at the Restaurant du Coeur. When Kara gave her presentation I was under the impression that they were soup kitchens. Actually they're more like food banks. People are registered with the program and they can come twice a week and get groceries. The amount they receive is based on how many people are in their family. There were many people there who were only receiving food for themselves, but there was one young girl who had 7 brothers and sisters. Kara was working the milk station - although it's fairly straightforward because all of the cartons of milk are similar, she said it was more difficult than she expected because each person receives 1 liter of milk per week. So if they're only receiving food for themselves and they've already gotten their milk on Monday, they can't take another Liter carton on Thursday. She said some people got angry about not getting any milk, and it was hard for her to refuse them. The doors opened at 2pm and for the next two hours I and a grandmotherly woman named Michelle sliced in half and doled out bread. We had all different kinds: baguette (of course), country bread, bread with raisins, bread with bacon pieces, very thin baguettes, rounds, etc. Michelle has been volunteering there for 2 years and she told me there are an average of 350-400 people served each day. One group of people come Monday and Thursday and another group comes Tuesday and Friday. The work was certainly not difficult and I was pleased because I didn't have too much trouble communicating. I was really impressed with the efficiency of the system and the quality of the products we were handing out. All of the food was donated by companies (as opposed to individuals) and there was lots of fresh produce and well-known marks.

I am very, very pleased I decided to go with Kara. My original plan was to go to the Musee Magnin, one of the few museums here in Dijon that I have not yet seen. But I am glad I stuck with this. It was rewarding to help other people and cool to be able to do that and practice French at the same time. I'm just sorry that today was my first and last visit. I would definitely recommend volunteering there for future Wake Forest Dijon students.

Okay well I would love to type more but I am falling asleep. Here are the pictures of everything we cooked. I was told the chef would email us the recipe, but since I didn't give them my email address I'm not sure how that's going to work. I hope we figure it out, because the first course and the dessert were particularly good. Below are some pictures: